The need to protect surfaces during painting and other finishing operations of bordering surfaces requires the shielding or masking of the surfaces to be protected. In order to protect the surfaces, the user tears off a portion of masking tape for use in covering the surface to be protected. This is a time consuming job which requires careful attention to detail if the surface is to be fully protected.
While masking tape covers well and is easy to tear, it is not easy to tear in a straight line. The jagged tape edge often leaves a portion of the surface exposed and likely to be damaged or soiled with paint or plaster or the jagged edge protrudes into the area to be painted resulting in the paint not properly coating the surface to be painted. None of the present methods are suitable for easily and satisfactorily obtaining a section of tape properly sized while maintaining adequate protection against the paint or other liquid. Scissors are impractical, hazardous, and inefficient to use on a job site. A saw toothed cutting edge, as is sometimes provided for transparent and packing tape, is also awkward and dangerous.